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Computerising land record: files go missing

RAWALPINDI, Dec 12: The City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) has decided to get strict with revenueofficials and asked assistant commissioners (AC) to start inspections of records in tehsiloffices and Patwar Khanas, after it was discovered that a large cache of land revenue records were missing.

The land revenue record, including 181 mauzaat (villages), 156 field books, 90 daily reports, went missing last month and it raised alarm bells in the provincial headquarters. The officials of revenue office were of the view that the record was destroyed during computerisation process.

However, on directives of District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zafar, the revenue record officials managed to recover record of 51 villages, 42 field books, 25 daily reports and assured that they would recover the remaining records.

The revenue department official told Dawn that the provincial government had started computerisation of land records and Patwaris were against this and therefore they hid some files.The official said the government managed to scan all the data — 1,197 villages — of the district and the process of converting the data on computer files is in process. He said for the recovery of records and to maintain all things, the CDGR asked the ACs to inspect all the records on paper and match it with the scanned files.

To maintain the land revenue records of the district, DCO Saqib Zafar issued directives to ACs.

In his letter, the DCO said: “With great concern, it has been observed that field tour of assistant commissioners and subsequent inspections of records in Tehsil offices and Patwar Khanas is not being carried out in true spirit. As an outcome of this lackluster approach, general public is suffering at the hands of lower revenue officials.”